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The transformation to a biobased economy offers an opportunity for rural communities virtually unprecedented in modern times. Biobased energy and industrial production will create new markets for farmers, and new industries in rural areas. However, rural communities will not realize these benefits unless they are stakeholders in new biobased businesses.
We intend to offer farmers with whom we work the chance to become partners in our ventures and to share in the benefits which new biobased technologies can offer. Among the business models we will consider will be operating our processing facilities as joint ventures with agricultural cooperatives. It is central to our business vision that biorefineries become not only profit centers, but also catalysts for economic growth in rural America.
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Replacing imported petroleum with renewable domestic raw materials.
Reliance on imported petroleum has led to increasing energy prices and made the U.S. dangerously vulnerable to events in oil-producing nations. By contrast, biobased materials are renewable, and can be produced domestically.
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Rural Economic Development
Biorefineries can be a catalyst for economic development in depressed rural areas. A biorefinery creates new markets for agricultural crops, which it uses as a raw material. In addition, a biorefinery creates new jobs and industries. Biorefineries must be located in rural areas, close to agricultural production. This means new jobs and industrial facilities located in the rural regions.
Tobacco-based biorefineries would provide special benefits. Tobacco supports up to three million jobs in the southeastern United States. Tobacco production has declined by nearly 50% in the last seven years, causing severe hardship in the many communities which are economically dependent on tobacco. Our business has the potential to create new jobs and industries in these struggling communities based on the production of safe and beneficial new products from tobacco.
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Environmental Benefits
Renewable biobased products offer important environmental advantages. For example, biobased products produce far fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum.
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